The increasing amount of high-quality broad-band seismograph
stations in Europe and in neighbouring areas will provide
unprecedented opportunities for seismological research on the
earthquake source and significantly improve services to the science
community and to the public by releasing rapidly information on
significant earthquakes.

The four articles in this ORFEUS Newsletters
deal with these exciting new opportunities. While the articles give
an account of ongoing work on moment tensor inversion at some
institutions, this Newsletter does not provide a comprehensive
overview of European activities on determinations of earthquake
source parameters. However, we hope that the reports may help to
initiate a kickoff for a broader forum on problems and results of
earthquake source studies carried out at seismological institutions
in the European-Mediterranean area. The editors of the ORFEUS
Newsletter are certainly happy to provide a venue for presentations
on this topic. We also wish to point to the forthcoming
ESC General Assembly in Lisbon
where a special session SSC-3 is dedicated to moment tensor
determination. This would be certainly an appropiate venue for an
informal exchange of ideas on this topic in addition to the more
formal presentations in the session.

The majority of papers deals with methods for regional moment
tensor (RMT) inversion. This is clearly appropiate for the
European-Mediterranean area because strong (M > 5.5) earthquakes
for which moment tensor solutions are reported, usually within 24
hours after the event, by the
EMSC,
Harvard,
or the USGS
do not occur frequently.

The contributions by Morelli et al. and
Hofstetter et al. focus on earthquakes in the Mediterranean and
Turkey. Braunmiller et al. give a detailed account of the source
parameter determination of the November 12, 1999, Düzce
earthquake for which they could provide a quick moment tensor
solution 4 hours after the event. Many of the other examples
presented deal with local and regional earthquakes. It is obvious
that a very important point is the availability of broad-band data
from a number of stations well distributed in azimuth about the
epicentre. This requirement is not always met shortly after
significant earthquakes as pointed out in the report by Bock on the
rapid source parameter determination of the Izmit event of August 17,
1999. It is also clear that in many cases one has to work with data
from more than one network. On a global scale, broad-band data become
available for M > 5.5 events and some
significant events below the M = 5.5 threshold through the Spyder®
online data pools at
IRIS DMC,
ORFEUS
and GEOFON.
However, the station distribution for the global Spyder® systems is
usually not suitable for reliable RMT solutions to be determined.
Using regional network data is essential in these cases. Under
favourable conditions it is possible to derive reliable RMT
solutions for weak earthquakes down to Mw = 3.5 as demonstrated by
Braunmiller et al. The contributions by Morelli et al, Braunmiller et
al, and Hofstetter et al all indicate that completeness of RMT
solutions for M > 4.5 earthquakes in the European-Mediterranean
area is a realistic goal to be reached. Building a moment tensor
catalogue for the European-Mediterranean region which is complete
down to M = 4.5 or even 4.0 is a challenging task for the future.
Such a regional database would be a most valuable addition to the
Harvard catalogue of strong earthquakes. To achieve the goal it is
appropiate to co-ordinate efforts by various groups in the
European-Mediterranean region who are actively involved in moment
tensor inversions. We hope that this and other topics can be
discussed between interested people at the ESC Lisbon meeting.